One thing that affected all of us salon owners at the end of 2009 was the recession. We found less people coming in to be pampered and regulars going one more week between nail fills. Because my girls did not want to work for free (come on, I can’t imagine why!), I had to combat this problem. So, we put on some killer specials and did extra advertising in local magazines and papers. Little did we know that the best advertising would be the window art. We spent loads of money to hire a well-known window painter to decorate for the holidays, only to find he spelled “peppermint” in our “peppermint pedicure” wrong! This mistake, though frustrating at first, drew more attention than anything else! We had random people stopping in and phoning to inform us on the wrong spelling: the perfect opportunity to introduce our shop. We could not have asked for better marketing!

As December rolled around, between our extra efforts to bring people in and the holiday season, we ended up busier than we could handle! We had all our nail stations being used simultaneously for the first time ever. We worked faster than we ever have and extended our hours to try and fit everyone in. This wasn’t enough. I had to pull my receptionist (who is also a nail tech) from behind the computer desk to do new clients, and I picked up all the remainder of the clients. Talons was a bustling place over the holidays and we ended 2009 with a boom.  

—Michelle, Talons Nail Evolution, Victoria, B.C., Canada